


Double Helix

by Goldfinch142



Series: the Village AU [2]
Category: Henry Stickmin Series (Video Games)
Genre: First Mission, Gen, Kid Ellie, Kid Henry, Selectively Mute Henry Stickmin, Toppat Clan Adopted Henry Stickmin, Toppat Ellie Rose (Henry Stickmin), Toppat Henry Stickmin, generally light-hearted and comedic, the government, toppat clan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:46:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28345614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goldfinch142/pseuds/Goldfinch142
Summary: Double helix (noun): a pair of parallel helices intertwined about a common axis.It’s been two years since Henry Stickmin was adopted into the Toppat Clan’s airship division. And as far as he’s concerned, it was the best thing that ever happened to him.The only thing that could make it better? His first real mission, and a new red-headed partner in crime.(Direct sequel to It Takes a Village, but it's not required to read it to understand this story.)
Series: the Village AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2075847
Comments: 29
Kudos: 95





	1. Point of Origin

_BANG._

The gunshot echoed through the shooting range, hitting Henry’s target right in the forehead.

“Nice shot, ‘Enry,” Right Hand Man said approvingly, watching the policeman dummy flop over. “Let’s do some moving targets next.”

The Toppat shooting instructor hummed in acknowledgment and pressed a button on a small remote. Another dummy, this time dressed as a military guard, slid into view, attached to a metal frame on wheels that moved back and forth on tracks.

As Henry once again readied his handgun with a determined glint in his eye, Right leaned against the back wall with folded arms and inspected Henry’s form and technique for any sloppiness and general weak areas. He nodded in satisfaction when there were none and Henry’s next two shots were both direct hits.

Following Henry’s completion of the gun safety course and getting a bit older, it was time to start his practical firearm training. While the airship did have a small, heavily fortified space for shooting practice, it was designed to brush up skills that were already there, not to develop new skill, so the Toppats of the airship division had organized a system where everyone on board took turns taking Henry to the tundra base or jungle base division’s shooting range to hone his shooting skill, aptly called _chauffeur duty_. It worked well, and Henry’s marksmanship was already improving by leaps and bounds.

After the sixth shot blown into the dummy (with five more that missed), Right looked at his watch and called time, walking up to Henry and waving for the instructor and her team to start cleaning up.

“Your aim’s gettin’ better.”

Henry smirked and twirled the gun around his finger, looking rather pleased with himself.

Right snickered as they walked out the doors of the facility. “Don’t go thinkin’ you’re all that just yet, kid. You missed nearly ‘alf of those shots.”

Henry dramatically sniffed, crossing his arms and looking away with closed eyes.

Right couldn’t help but snort in amusement, shaking his head. “Don’t forget we ‘ave to meet with some of the team leaders ‘ere about the gove’ment raid before we go,” he reminded Henry, directing them towards the administration building. (That was why Right was there; it was actually supposed to be Geoffrey Plumb’s turn for chauffeur duty, but since Right needed to come to the tundra base division for the meeting anyway, they had switched.)

Usually Reg would have joined him for big meetings like this, but today he was busy leading a mission to bust a few captured Toppats out of prison after a jewelry store hit went bad. Apparently they hadn’t even checked for motion sensors and silent alarms before trying to sneak in. Idiots.

In any case, as right hand and second-in-command of the Clan, Right would be standing in for Reg at the meeting.

A moment later, they passed through the front doors of the admin building. The space immediately opened up into a spacious atrium with a tiled linoleum floor and high ceiling, with portraits of past Toppat Clan leaders lining the walls on either side. A few Toppats were milling around, either aimlessly or with a purpose. Right and Henry’s footsteps echoed as they strolled over to the large directory on the wall.

“Conference Room 4,” Right muttered, trailing a finger down the entries. “Conference—ah, there it is. Third floor, second door on the right.”

He led Henry to the elevator and they squeezed inside, trying not to squish the six other Toppats already in there. Right pressed the button for the third floor and fixed an intense stare at the elevator door, trying to ignore all the people crammed uncomfortably close to him.

After an elevator ride that felt like an hour but probably only took about thirty seconds, they finally made it to the right floor and stepped off, quickly finding the conference room and slipping into the nearest available seats at the large circular table. A few minutes later, everyone had arrived (including a little red-haired girl, for some reason) and Right called the meeting to order.

“Alright, everyone, today we’ll be discussin’ the gove’ment raid next week,” Right began, steepling his hands and sweeping his stolid gaze over everyone in the room. “Our mission is to get into the gove’ment complex out west to cause chaos and distract ‘em for the day so they don’t interfere with our own bank team’s raid on the Central Bank. Cross, you said you ‘ad an idea on ‘ow to avoid gettin’ shut down before we can get a proper distraction goin’?”

Carol Cross nodded confidently. Even though she was the Toppat Clan’s newest team leader, having only been promoted to head of covert ops a couple months prior, she had more than proven her competence and worth as an executive, with over a dozen successful missions already under her belt. As this particular mission was (apparently) in part a deception-based one, Cross would be leading it after getting approval from Right Hand Man, which was the purpose of the meeting.

“Yes. I know of a way we can get Toppats into the government complex to begin the distraction undetected—and, in, fact, welcomed with open arms.”

As the room filled with murmurs and glances at each other, Right raised an eyebrow at her. “That’s quite the strategy you got. Let’s ‘ear it.”

“It involves some children of the Clan.”

“Ah, so that’s why you asked me to bring ‘Enry,” Right said, looking over at the boy in the seat beside him, who looked back with a confused expression.

Cross nodded in affirmation. “It’s also why I brought along Ellie here,” she replied, gesturing to the little red-haired girl seated next to her, who smirked and waved at him. “This is Ellie Rose. She was recruited from an orphanage only a few months ago, but she’s got the stuff, I’ll tell you that. She and Henry would be teaming up as the ‘double agents’ for the mission.”

“Who else?”

“Just them.”

Right stared at her in disbelief. “You wanna send in a couple children as the only agents for a delicate gove’ment mission?”

“Well, just them at first,” Cross corrected.

Right cautiously nodded and motioned for her to continue.

“I know it sounds crazy, but just think about it,” Cross said in a rush, Ellie nodding along. “Ellie and Henry find the government complex. They’re just a couple of helpless little eight-year-olds, lost and alone. Of course the government will let them into the complex and try to help! Then they can sneak around the complex and scramble some machinery, set off small explosions—stuff like that.” The executive cracked a sanguine smile. “There’ll be a few adult field agents waiting just outside that will guide them with earpieces and join them in the distraction after the government is already running around like headless chickens. Then the adults will make sure Henry and Ellie get out safely when the time comes. There’s no way the government will be able to regroup fast enough to stop the bank team’s raid.”

Huh. That was…a pretty good idea, actually. He couldn’t find any immediate problems with it, anyway. Right raised his eyebrows. “You know, that might just work. Good plan, Cross. But ‘Enry gets the final say ‘ere.” He turned to Henry. “Whaddaya say, kid? You wanna go on your first real mission?”

Henry grinned wide and nodded ardently, looking every bit like he was about to vibrate right out of his seat in excitement.

“Alright then, Cross. Your plan is approved.”

Next to him, Henry left his seat (though not by vibrating) and ran over to Ellie, sticking out his hand.

Ellie grinned back at him and shook his hand. “Hey, I’m Ellie. And you’re Henry, right?”

Henry nodded again.

“Cool. Guess we’ll be paying the government a visit, huh? Let’s make ‘em regret ever seeing us!”

They high-fived, wearing twin evil smirks.

Right shook his head and smiled. He could already tell the pair would raise some hell for those government rats.


	2. Viral DNA

After a week of covert ops training and more firearm drills for Henry (as Ellie hadn’t yet finished the safety course), Henry thought he and Ellie were ready.

Even though he’d only known Ellie for eight days, it felt like eight years. He had never met anyone so similar to himself, cut from the same gem. (He knew that is supposed to be from the same _cloth_ , but he liked his version better. Who would want to be cut from some dirty old cloth?)

From what he’d seen in the past week, Henry had faith in Ellie’s skill, but he knew for sure that they would really make the perfect team when they planned and pulled off a heist of the stuffy acting instructor’s cupcake in just a few minutes. They split it 50-50 and it was the best cupcake Henry had ever tasted. Stolen food always tasted _way_ more satisfying, especially when you were also running from an angry cupcake-less Toppat brandishing ten extra pages of acting exercises. ( _So_ worth it.)

But he was destined for bigger and better things than cupcakes, he could _feel_ it. He was so excited to finally be going on his first _real_ mission, where he could finally prove it. And with his new partner in crime, no less!

Speaking of, he and Ellie were getting a final review from Uncle Reginald, Uncle Right, and Miss Carol, hidden in the underbrush just outside of the forested government complex with the rest of the Toppat field agents. The trees swayed around them in the early-afternoon sun, dappling all the quietly calm faces.

Well, _mostly_ calm.

“Now, Henry, Ellie,” Uncle Reginald was saying nervously while obsessively smoothing his mustache, “don’t forget to behave appropriately sad and pathetic. And make sure no one sees both of your earpieces and your gun, Henry. And always stick together. And remember that if you run into trouble, say so on the earpieces or shoot into the air twice and we’ll come get you. And—”

“I’m sure they’ll be fine,” Uncle Right cut in. “The earpieces are tiny, and besides, whaddaya think all those actin’ and sneakin’ classes were for? …But, you know, do everythin’ ‘e just said,” he added with an intense stare at the two eight-year-olds. “And ‘Enry, only use your gun if you really ‘ave to, you ‘aven’t finished the practical course yet. And you two remember where the armory and ‘angars are, right? And ‘ow to use the scrambler we gave you? And—"

Uncle Right paused, turning slightly pink at Uncle Reginald’s half-lidded stare, and pulled his hat over his eyes. “Eh…anyway. Go get ‘em, kid. Er, kids.”

“Yeah!” Ellie yelled beside him (though not loud enough for the complex entrance guards to hear), pumping her fist in the air. Henry let himself be swept up in her energy and mirrored the movement, baring his teeth in his best fierce grin.

They would show those government guys who was boss.

At Miss Carol’s signal, he and Ellie handed her their top hats and Henry loaded his gun (but kept the safety on, since Uncle Reginald and Uncle Right—and the safety course, he guessed—had made such a big deal about that).

_“Now, Henry, it wouldn’t do for you to be down a limb because you didn’t follow proper safety procedure, would it?”_

_“You fixin’ to blow your leg off, kid? Keep the safety on!”_

Ellie’s loud stage whisper and light punch to the arm jolted Henry out of his thoughts.

“Come on, let’s get going!”

Checking one last time for Miss Carol’s and his uncles’ nods and getting them (as well as encouraging gestures from the several dozen Toppat field agents, several of whom he recognized from the airship), he and Ellie carefully picked their way through the bushes onto the beaten path leading to the entrance of the government complex. As they neared the line of sight of the entrance guards, Henry made sure that his small handgun was firmly strapped to his midsection and invisible beneath his jacket while Ellie did the same with the scrambler strapped under her own, slightly lighter jacket. (His tried-and-true method. Worked every time.)

Apparently the guards could hear their footsteps now, because one of them shouted “Who’s there!?” while presumably pointing his rifle in their general direction.

“You ready for this?” Ellie asked him quietly, smirking.

Henry smirked back and punched a fist into his hand. He was _born_ ready.

“Great.” She looked forward, and Henry followed her lead—they were nearly at the corner now. “There’s our first wall to smash through. Let’s take it to ‘em.”

Sharing one last mischievous glance with his new partner, they adopted the saddest looks they could manage without bursting out laughing and rounded the corner.

“Halt in the name of—oh,” the other guard stuttered in surprise. Her expression immediately softened and she lowered her own rifle, blinking at them owlishly. To her left, the male guard just stared at them with a slightly suspicious furrow in his brow, only lowering his rifle when the female guard rolled her eyes and elbowed him in the ribs.

“Are you lost?” the female guard asked them kindly, her eyes sweeping over their carefully scruffed-up appearances and forlorn faces.

“Y-yeah,” Ellie sniffed, wiping her teary eyes. (Henry was a bit jealous; he could never get the hang of crying on command, so he was stuck with just looking as downcast as he could.) “I’m E-Ellie, and this is my brother Henry. We were on a hike with our parents…and we l-lost them somewhere in the forest…and now we don’t know what to do…”

“Well, don’t worry, little guys. We can help you track down your parents,” the female guard said, kneeling down and smiling at them reassuringly. “I’m Victoria Grit, by the way.” She glanced over to the other guard pointedly.

“…And I’m Vance Kite,” the male guard said reluctantly, still giving them the side eye. Kite pulled Grit aside a few paces away and the pair started talking to each other in hushed voices with their backs to him and Ellie. Even so, Henry’s hearing was very good, so he could just make out what they were saying if he really paid attention.

“Don’t you think this is a little…suspicious?”

“They’re children, Vance.”

“Yeah, but—what if they’re spies? What if they’re _Toppat_ spies?”

Grit scoffed. “Oh, yeah, they’re definitely spies. You can tell by that _eeeevil_ look in their eyes.”

Henry—and Ellie, after he nudged her—plastered on their best innocent faces when the guards looked back at them for a moment.

Kite sighed and shook his head. “Look, let’s just keep an eye on them, okay?”

“Pretty sure we were going to do that already,” Grit replied drily.

The guards came back over and Grit smiled at them again as she led them through the entrance. “Let’s get you two inside. I’ll take you to General Canterbury and he can help you find your parents. Vance, just keep guarding the entrance,” she called over her shoulder as they passed into the complex.

A few minutes of twists and turns and a lot of confused stares in their direction later, Grit ushered them into an army-green metal building that looked exactly like the rest of them; Henry only knew it was the General’s office by the sign out front.

Taking a quick glance around, the inside wasn’t really that different from the outside. The bare metal walls were the same shade of dull green and the only furniture was a filing cabinet in the corner and a desk and chair in the back.

The man sitting at the desk (who Henry assumed was General Canterbury) looked equally boring in his green uniform and army hat. (There was, however, a gold ring on his finger, which was the first interesting thing he’d seen since they got there. He quickly looked away before he was caught staring.) General Canterbury looked up at them as they came in and pushed aside one of the many stacks of files on the desk to clear his view, raising a bushy gray eyebrow as he did so.

“Private Grit? What are these children doing here?”

Grit straightened up. “Private Kite and I found them right outside the complex, General. They lost their parents somewhere in the forest while hiking.”

“Really.” General Canterbury’s intense stare made Henry feel uncomfortably like the man could somehow read his mind, and not in the cool way that Ellie could when they were scheming together.

_We’re just wimpy little kids, not Toppats at all, just lost…yeah…_

“We got s-separated at one of the forks, I think,” Ellie said from beside him, eyes still watery. “We couldn’t find them _anywhere_. We lost them somewhere behind this place.” Henry nodded along, trying to look ‘appropriately sad and pathetic’. The Toppat forces were hiding in front of the complex, so hopefully directing them behind would keep any search parties far away from them. And if not…well, it was one search party vs. several dozen Toppats, including the leader and right hand. Henry didn’t need to be psychic to know who would win that fight.

The General squinted at them for another long moment before, thankfully, relaxing and standing up. “Alright. I’ll send out a search team for your parents. What are their names?”

Ellie paused, and Henry realized that they _really_ should have thought of names before showing themselves.

“Uh…their names are…Daniel…and…Danielle…Smith.”

Henry had to call upon the full force of his will and the power of every deity he could think of to stop himself from smacking his hand to his forehead. _Seriously?_

“And we’re Ellie and Henry Smith,” Ellie finished, with more confidence. She seemed to have recovered and was back in the swing of acting.

The General blinked. “ _Daniel_ and _Danielle_?”

“Yeah! They thought it was pretty funny too!” she laughed easily (but not too easily; she was still fake-crying, after all), fiddling with a butterfly pin in her hair.

“…Okay then. Can you give me a general description of what they look like?” he asked, pulling out a notepad and pen and scribbling something on it.

“Mom has blonde hair and glasses, and Dad has red hair, a gold tooth, and a mustache. They’re both wearing purple jackets.”

General Canterbury hummed and wrote it down. “I’ll go ahead and contact the search team and have them track down your parents.” He unclipped a walkie-talkie from his belt and held it up. “Lieutenant Galeforce, come to my office immediately. Over.” The walkie-talkie went back on his belt and he sat down at his desk. “Private Grit, return to your station. Ellie and Henry, wait here until Lieutenant Galeforce arrives.”

Ellie pulled Henry into the corner, where they huddled together and tried to look small and miserable. “Do you think we can call Miss Carol and the others yet?” she whispered in his ear, shooting a quick look at the tiny earpiece nestled in his ear as the General started talking to the search team on the phone in the background.

Henry shook his head just enough for her to see. The General was still too close and he might hear. He held up a palm. _Wait._

“Gotcha.”

The pair stood in silence for a few long minutes with only the metal walls and a droning General to look at. Henry, in an attempt to pass the time faster, tried and failed to convince himself that counting rivets in the walls was a good time. (Sneaking looks at the gold ring helped, though.)

 _Finally_ , a head poked through the wide doorway, followed by a similar green uniform, though with a lot fewer fancy markings on it.

The General looked up but stayed in his seat. “Ah, Lieutenant Galeforce. I was just done talking to the search team. These kids Ellie and Henry Smith here lost their parents in the forest and I’m sending a squad out to find them. In the meantime, you’ll be their chaperone. As such, you will take them with you on all of your duties for today.”

Galeforce saluted. “Understood, General.”

“Good. Dismissed.”

Galeforce motioned for Henry and Ellie to follow him out of the building. “Well, come on, then.”


	3. Initiators

Galeforce set a brisk pace through the complex, which made it a bit difficult for Henry to try to memorize the signs outside of each identical building. His uncles and Miss Carol had showed them a map they’d drawn up from the best info they had and pointed out the armory and hangars, but it was surprisingly tricky to connect the map to his actual surroundings. His sense of direction was usually better than this…

Luckily, Ellie seemed to have guessed his intentions and had him covered, quietly pointing out all the buildings of interest.

The trio entered the Laundry Facility (according to the sign) and Galeforce held out an arm to stop them when they had reached a room full of huge industrial washing machines and dryers, not unlike those on the airship, though there were a lot more of them. They lined the walls of the room in neat white rows of washing machines on one side and dryers on the other, conveniently labeled for idiots that couldn’t tell which was which, Henry guessed. A few of each were already loudly running.

Galeforce grabbed a cart of dirty laundry and rolled it over to a washing machine. “I have laundry duty, so you two can just sit over there until I’m done,” the Lieutenant half-shouted over the noise, gesturing in the general direction of a small bench and not bothering to look at them. Henry rolled his eyes at the man’s inattention. He wasn’t even going to watch them?

Well, that was just fine with him—this was going to be even easier than he’d thought.

Ellie nudged him and pointed at the shelf of laundry detergent that Galeforce had just taken a jug from. Henry smirked in understanding; he was pretty sure he knew what Ellie wanted to do.

As Ellie slowly tiptoed to the shelf, glancing at Galeforce every few steps, Henry sidled up to Galeforce’s other side and gripped the edge of the washing machine, pulling himself up on his toes and looking down at the pile of dirty uniforms within. Slapping on a fascinated look, he pulled out a green jacket and pointed at the golden upside-down Vs on the upper sleeve.

Galeforce blinked at him, looking surprised at his feigned interest. “Oh, those? It’s the rank insignia. This is all the corporals’ laundry, so all these jackets will have two of those. A private has one, a sergeant three, and the other ranks all have different insignias.”

Henry absently nodded along, barely listening, and very carefully didn’t look at Ellie, who was busily pouring a couple jugs of laundry detergent each into the empty washing machines and pressing the start buttons. Thankfully, she had the foresight to put the jugs back on the shelf once they were empty.

As the Lieutenant enthusiastically went on and on about army insignias and the history behind them all (seriously, he knew _way_ more about that than was healthy), Henry quickly found that there were only so many ways he could nod and keep looking interested. His eyes fell on a spider crawling on the side of the washing machine and it took a surprising amount of effort not to stare at it. Army insignia history was just _that_ boring.

So engrossed was Henry in his mental attempts to stay awake through the lecture that he nearly missed Galeforce finishing up and closing the last lid. Henry’s breath caught in his throat—Galeforce was starting to turn around, Ellie was still filling up the last empty washing machine—

Henry grabbed the spider and shrieked as loud as he could, which turned out to be _very_ loud. Even the dull roar of all the running machines was drowned out for a moment.

When Galeforce jumped (Ellie jumped too, not that the man could see it) and turned back to him looking utterly stunned, Henry spent the first couple seconds standing there like an idiot, holding a spider.

Galeforce’s eyes trailed down to the large black spider. “Is _that_ what that was?” he exclaimed exasperatedly. He reached over and flicked the spider onto the floor. “It’s not going to hurt you, Henry. It’s just a spider.”

Henry nodded, a bit shaken up from the close call. Ellie put the last jug back on the shelf and jogged over to them.

“Scream a little louder, Henry, some people at the North Pole didn’t hear you,” Ellie joked, throwing him a grateful smile from behind Galeforce’s back. “Let’s move on, yeah?”

“Of course,” Galeforce agreed, already moving towards the door. “We’re done here. On to the next duty.”

Henry gazed at the spider for a moment, promptly decided she was a she, and picked her up and gently deposited her in his jacket’s front pocket. She didn’t seem to mind too much and sat still for the most part. The eight-year-old smiled at her for a brief second, then hurried after Ellie and Galeforce.

_I’m gonna name you Cupcake._

* * *

“I think we can turn our earpieces on now,” Ellie murmured as they slowed and fell behind their ‘chaperone’ (Henry almost snorted at the thought) on their way to his next duty. “Galeforce is pretty far ahead of us and no one else is really near us.”

Henry made small noise of agreement and switched on his earpiece, watching Ellie do the same.

A quiet crackle.

_“Henry? Ellie? Are you two alright so far?”_

_Uncle Reginald!_

Henry couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face at hearing his uncle’s voice. As short a time as it had been since he last heard it, he still kind of missed it, as weird as that sounded to his own ears.

“Yup, we’re both good,” Ellie said quietly, smiling a bit.

_“Ah, good! Eh—have you made it to the armory and hangars yet, by chance?”_

“Not yet. The guy they stuck us with said something about going to those places last, and we have to follow him around,” Ellie replied with a quick roll of her eyes. “We gotta wait ‘til _he_ gets there.”

A gruff voice broke in. _“Don’t do anythin’ stupid, you 'ear? I really don’t wanna ‘ave to scrape you two off the complex pavement.”_

Henry shook his head with a small smile. He knew Uncle Right worried about them, too, no matter what he might say.

“We won’t, Mr. Right.” The dark glint in Ellie’s excited eyes made Henry think that that wasn’t quite true, but hey, _he_ wasn’t gonna say anything.

 _“Once you get to the armory and hangars, use the scrambler on all the military vehicles just like we showed you,”_ Miss Carol reminded them, _just_ managing to cut off one of his uncles launching into one of his fusses over them (he couldn’t tell which one from the quarter-second before the voice had been cut off). “ _Then we’ll come in and take over for you. Any opportunity for sabotage you come across before that, we’ll leave to your creativity, though feel free to contact us for ideas if it’s safe to do so.”_

Ellie nodded before apparently remembering that Miss Carol couldn’t see her and murmuring a quick “Got it.” She suddenly looked up sharply past Henry’s shoulder, startling him. He followed her gaze to see that Galeforce was standing still and waiting for them to catch up. They were getting too close to keep talking. “Gotta go,” she whispered, and the voices fell silent. The second Galeforce turned back around, they pretended to scratch their ears and switched off the earpieces.

* * *

Henry looked around the colorful classroom as the three walked inside, a bit surprised there even was one in a _government complex_ of all things. Galeforce had told them on the way that the government had an educational program where they held kindergarten classes on the far side of the complex. Who knew?

“I have to collect the teacher’s lesson plans for next month and submit them to the General for approval,” Galeforce explained as the teacher and dozen students already in the room fell silent and stared at them. “Go play with the kindergarteners while I handle this.”

“You heard him! Go play, children!” the teacher called as she and Galeforce started rummaging through the desk and quietly talking. (Though Henry noted that Galeforce kept telling her about the government’s fancy new one-way shield bubble tech instead of going over the lesson plans. That guy liked weird tangents _way_ too much.)

Ellie pulled Henry over to the pale blue play rug, where a bunch of kindergarteners silently stared at them.

“Uh…hi.” Ellie scuffed a shoe on the rug and looked like she’d rather be anywhere else.

The kindergartners just blinked at her.

“Cool, nice talk,” the redhead muttered.

Henry mind was elsewhere, however. One of the kids in the back, with the really cool hair…had she just…?

Henry raised his hands, staring straight at the girl, not daring to hope.

‘Hello. My name is Henry.’ He repeated his name by spelling it out; if he was right, she wouldn’t know his name sign.

Everyone on the rug besides himself and Ellie (who had seen him sign a few times before) gasped and murmured to each other, most of them looking back at the girl Henry had seen signing to another girl.

The Toppat Clan’s airship division had created a course for sign language when Henry had expressed interest in learning a few months ago. (The class was also being slowly expanded for the entire Clan; his uncles had recently deemed sign language a ‘necessary skill’ and made it mandatory to have a basic understanding of it. Henry couldn’t have been happier.) He wasn’t completely fluent yet, but he could hold a simple conversation. Ellie, who had started learning it a few weeks ago when a course was created for the tundra base division, only knew most of the alphabet and some basic words and phrases—not nearly as much as Henry, but enough for now. They’d vowed to begin properly practicing sign language on each other after this mission.

The girl beamed and quickly signed back.

‘Hello! My name is Matilda!’ (She also spelled out her name to match the name sign.) ‘Matilda Ivy!’

Henry was intrigued. He’d never met anyone outside of the Clan who knew any amount of sign language, and it was _so_ refreshing.

“Hey, you know sign!” a blonde boy said, sitting up straighter. “We’ve all been learning it for Matilda!” He leaned forward. “She doesn’t really talk, you know?”

Oh, Henry knew. He knew better than just about anyone. A lot of people at Red Mesa Orphanage and his old school always bothered him about why he didn’t talk.

_“Come on, Henry, say something!”_

_“What, can’t you talk?”_

_“There’s nothing wrong with you! Why do you refuse to speak?”_

Honestly. No one ever seemed to accept that he just didn’t like to talk if he didn’t have to. It got _really_ old, _really_ fast.

The Toppat Clan, on the other hand, accepted his choice to be silent right away and never pushed him to speak if he didn’t want to. They were even learning _sign language_ for him. And they all said the _Toppats_ were the bad guys.

It made Henry want to laugh.

Matilda nodded, flipping her hair. ‘Yeah. At least I don’t have to read out loud for reading time!’ She giggled, though it sounded more like a hoarse croak. ‘Some of the books are _really_ boring.’ Her movements were extra-forceful on the ‘really’.

The rest of the class chimed their agreement after Matilda’s friend helped translate—apparently she knew the most sign language of any of them, besides Matilda herself.

“And then there’s _math_ ,” Matilda’s friend whispered conspiratorially. “That’s even _worse._ ”

“You said it, sister,” Ellie laughed. “Math is my worst enemy. Who needs it, anyway?”

Henry wasn’t the biggest fan of math either, if he was being honest. But it must be at least a _little_ important, because the Toppat Clan insisted he take math classes along with his other school classes. (The airship had taken on several tutors to cover all the subjects Henry had been learning at the school by the orphanage.) Sometimes, it felt like math was a crime against humanity, only able to be defeated with an epic revolution.

…An epic revolution.

Henry’s lips quirked up as he swept his gaze over the gathered kindergartners.

He had an idea.

* * *

Henry and Ellie could barely contain their snickers as they trailed after Galeforce, away from the kindergarten class building. They’d turned on the earpieces for a moment to give the adults a quick update on how things were going and what they’d done so far, though they’d had to turn them off again just as quickly. (Uncle Right thought Ellie’s move with the washing machines was a riot, and Henry couldn’t agree more. Now they just had to wait for the results.)

They weren’t able to contact the Toppats outside as often as they’d hoped—Galeforce insisted on sticking to them like glue—but Henry supposed it was enough. He and Ellie had plenty of ideas on their own.

On that note, he also wished they would get to the armory and hangars soon. That was their most important mission goal, and after that the adults would come in and the _real_ chaos would begin.

“This’ll be great!” Ellie hissed in his ear, still silently shaking in laughter. She smacked him on the back and nearly made him fall on his face. “That was a really good move. Let’s see how it all plays out.”

Henry stretched out his back, hearing a _crack_ as he did so, and awkwardly reached an arm around his back to try to rub some of the soreness out of it. Oh, yeah, he’d be feeling _that_ later. Still, he knew it was just Ellie’s way of being friendly. He subtly glanced down to make sure Cupcake was okay—she was fine, and happily sitting in the jacket’s pocket, waving some of her legs around. (He had introduced her to Ellie and the kindergarteners when the teacher and Galeforce weren’t looking. She was a big hit, and the students vowed to make her their mascot.)

They had to give the kindergarteners time to organize and prepare, but they would be there. They’d promised.

…Oh. Galeforce was saying something.

“…can’t keep dragging your feet like this. Please try to keep up,” Galeforce was calling sternly, marching back to them. “I know you’re worried about your parents, but you could get lost in the complex if you dawdle.”

“Sorry,” Ellie whimpered, her eyes tearing up again. (Wow, she could pull up tears _fast_ , Henry marveled.)

Galeforce’s eyes softened slightly. “Alright, alright, quit your crying. We can go a bit slower.”

Henry caught Ellie’s wince, though she hid it well. Well, _that_ had backfired.

“Um, that’s okay, we can go a bit faster…”

“If you’re sure.”

Henry and Ellie nodded in unison.

“Well, alright then. Let’s get going. I have to check the main fuse boxes to make sure everything’s in good shape.” The Lieutenant paused to looked back at them. “Don’t worry, they’ll find your parents.”

Ellie stared down at her shoes and smiled. Only Henry could see how self-satisfied it was.

* * *

Henry and Ellie were both standing around in the main room of the Electrical Center, a large open space with walls full of fuse boxes and floors full of random electrical machinery, trying to look small and obedient as Galeforce flitted between the fuse boxes, opening each one and muttering to himself before closing it and moving on. Henry idly watched him, more out of sheer boredom than anything else.

Would the guy hurry up and get to the scramble-able military vehicles already? From what Henry remembered of the Toppats’ map, the tanks and aircraft were stored right next to each other, so they could just scramble everything at once and be done with it. The only problem was actually getting there before he and Ellie had hair as gray as General Canterbury.

Henry was still internally grumbling when a flash of brown caught the corner of his eye. A weird color to see in _this_ place, where everything was either gray or color-coded with bright colors. He furrowed his brows in confusion and stepped to the side, deliberately bumping into Ellie. The girl flashed him an annoyed look that dissolved as soon as he signed ‘look’ and tilted his head at the box. Glancing at each other curiously, they lightly sidestepped over to where it was sitting half-hidden behind some electrical hub thing bolted to the floor.

Henry kept a lookout while Ellie checked out the contents. (The box wasn’t even sealed. Some security these guys have. Henry had seen better at the county fair Uncle Reginald and Uncle Right took him to last year.)

Ellie’s delighted gasp startled him and nearly made him whirl around, but he managed to catch himself just in time. Luckily, Galeforce didn’t seem to have heard and was still checking fuse boxes and muttering.

Henry chanced a glance behind him. Ellie looked like Christmas had just come early and was practically hugging over whatever she was holding. With a glitter in her eye, she held up what looked like some sort of strange, thin grenade and showed him the block lettering on it.

FLASHBANG.

Henry’s jaw dropped. Who had decided it was a good idea to leave _flashbangs_ in the _Electrical Center?_ He was starting to think every single government official in this place was terminally stupid. No one had proved him wrong so far.

Not that _he_ was going to complain. This just got a lot more interesting.

Peering down into the box, he could see that it was full of a couple dozen flashbangs, all with handy instructions on how to use them printed on one side.

Oh, yeah. He could think of a few good uses for these. He and Ellie quietly high-fived over the box and began scheming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year, everyone!
> 
> Please note that this is not an accurate representation of "selective mutism", but I'm going to keep the tag for it since it tends to be used in a similar context to this.


	4. Activators

Ellie’s earpiece crackled with static for a moment before Mr. Right’s baffled voice returned. _“Backpacks? Whaddaya need those for?”_

“Just trust us on this one,” Ellie said from inside the bathroom stall she was camping out in. “As soon as you guys all come in, Henry and I will need backpacks to carry some stuff.”

 _“Alright then,”_ the Toppat right hand replied. He still sounded confused, but Ellie appreciated that he trusted them enough to not question it. She could tell from the extra crackling that he put a hand over his earpiece, but she still had no problem hearing him address the crowd of Toppat field agents. _“Oi, you lot! Anyone ‘ere got a couple of empty backpacks?”_

Ellie anxiously looked around the stall as she listened to the Toppat crowd rummage around and chatter—she was running out of time. No one took this long to use the bathroom. Finally, after the longest three minutes of her life, Mr. Right started talking again.

_“Eh—we got a couple satchels, if that’ll work? Kinda like big purses?”_

Ellie breathed a sigh of relief. “That’ll work fine. Just make sure you get them to us as soon as possible after coming in. Henry and I have a big play planned, and I think you’re going to like it.”

Mr. Right chuckled. _“I’ll be lookin’ forward to it.”_

 _And I’ll be looking forward to impressing the Toppat Clan with the best chaos it’s ever seen_ , she didn’t say.

 _“Best of luck! And be careful!”_ Chief Reginald chimed in. Ellie huffed in amusement. Always had to have the final word, him.

She switched off the earpiece and hurried out of the bathroom, rejoining Henry and Galeforce waiting for her down the hall. She gave Henry a thumbs up when Galeforce was looking away. He nodded in understanding.

* * *

At last, at last, Galeforce had arrived at the armory, with the two little spies in tow. Henry had seriously been considering looking into some good retirement homes for him and Ellie if it took much longer.

…Actually, now that he was looking at it, there were _two_ armories. One with guns and ammo and stuff, and one with all the tanks. He smiled slyly. Even if the second armory was a surprise, it was a good thing they were so conveniently labeled for them.

“I’m going to do a routine survey of the armories,” Galeforce informed them, unlocking the door to the tank armory and moving to usher them inside. “Now, there’s a lot of dangerous machinery in there, so don’t touch anythi—"

The warning was cut off by several screams.

The trio turned to find at least a dozen soldiers running away from—

Henry couldn’t help it. He burst out laughing. Ellie dissolved into mad giggles at the same time.

A giant soap avalanche.

People were covered in soap, slipping, screaming, running around aimlessly. Henry had to admit that he was impressed by the laundry detergent’s range—the Laundry Facility was halfway across the complex.

One particularly brave private (he knew from the rank insignia; maybe he’d learned something from that first lecture after all) managed to get through the soap, though not before slipping and falling at least eight times. She ran up to Galeforce, who was just standing there, dumbfounded, staring at the tidal wave of bubbles descending upon them.

As the private started frantically yelling and pointing at the ocean of soap sloshing its way towards them, Henry nodded to Ellie.

It was time. They could drop the act.

The pair of Toppats ran into the tank armory, leaving Galeforce to the screaming private.

The tank armory was the larger of the two, and Henry could see why. Seven tanks sat in a neat row, all more or less identical, and all huge. There wasn’t really anything else in the building of note, so they just ran up to the first tank and Ellie pulled out the scrambler from under her jacket.

She paused, however, and turned on her earpiece. Henry followed her lead and did the same.

Ellie cleared her throat. “Hey, we’re about to scramble some tanks, so you can come in now.”

Uncle Reginald immediately replied. _“Oh, excellent! We’ll give the bank team the go-ahead and come right in!”_

“Don’t forget the bags!” Ellie reminded him.

_“We’ll get them to you as soon as we can.”_

“Cool.” Ellie flipped a switch on the scrambler and stuck it onto the tank, keeping a tight grip on it. A high-pitched buzzing filled the room for a moment, followed by a surge of visible electricity over the tank and a popping noise. Ellie ripped the scrambler off at the same moment the tank fired up and drove itself right out of the building, causing everyone in its path to shriek and leap out of the way. Including Galeforce, Henry noted, cracking up. He rather enjoyed watching the man hit the ground and slide in the soap like a slip ‘n slide.

The tank itself didn’t seem to have that problem, though. Then again, these tanks had those spiked rubber treads, so Henry guessed that helped.

The other six tanks drove out of the building almost in single file as Ellie stuck each one with the scrambler. The fresh shouting after each one was like music to his ears.

He wouldn’t have thought anything could top it, but then something did.

Someone shouted, “Toppats! The Toppats are here!”

Henry checked his watch. One hour left. The countdown had begun.

* * *

“To the hangars!” Ellie shouted over the noise, hopping over another puddle of soap. Henry followed her as fast as he dared, doing some sort of weird dance to avoid all the soap puddles and runaway tanks.

The hangars, four in all, were a neat row of metal buildings of the same design of the rest, just much, _much_ bigger. Before long they made it to the doors of the first and Henry yanked on the handle.

A wisp of worry curled up in his chest. It was locked. He didn’t have any pins on him. He gritted his teeth and mentally kicked himself in the shin, _hard_. Why hadn’t he brought any lockpicking tools? What kind of Toppat _was_ he?

And just like that, Ellie pulled the butterfly pin out of her hair.

“Thought it might come in handy.” She waved it in front of Henry, looking extremely satisfied at his probably immensely relieved face.

Of course. He should have known Ellie would have him covered. She always did.

Ellie seemed to have just as much skill in lockpicking as he did, as it only took her a few seconds to pick the lock and yank open the door to the first hangar.

They stepped inside and Henry immediately found himself staring down the barrel of a gun. He froze.

The gun wavered between him and Ellie as the officer (a corporal) holding it stared down at them in confusion.

“You’re those lost kids, right? How did you get in here? Does the General…” the man trailed off and Henry realized his eyes were on the scrambler still in Ellie’s hand.

As they nervously side-eyed each other, he could see his partner sweating bullets as the corporal’s eyes flicked between the scrambler, the tanks going haywire outside, and the Toppats that were beginning to arrive at the scene.

…This looked pretty bad, didn’t it.

He should have drawn his gun back in the tank armory; he couldn’t reach for it now without risking getting shot. He wasn’t sure how willing the government was to shoot kids, but he _really_ didn’t want to find out. He wasn’t even sure he could turn on his earpiece safely.

So he stood very still. His heart hammered in his chest, his mind raced, and his eyes darted around him, desperately searching for ideas. Left, right, up, down—

Down.

His gaze shot back up to the corporal, whose eyes were widening in horrified realization under his green military hat. A second later, the man’s lined face twisted into rage.

_“Toppats!”_

Quick as lightning and still just barely beating the rising gun barrel, Henry grabbed Cupcake and flung her onto the corporal’s face.

A beat of silence, save for all the muffled screams and crashes outside.

_“AAAAAIIIIUUUUUGGGHHH!”_

The corporal dropped his gun and danced around, slapping his own face as Cupcake skittered around and avoided every blow.

_“GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!”_

Henry grinned at the sight as Ellie snatched up the dropped handgun.

“Why are you hitting yourself? Why are you hitting yourself?” Ellie mocked, openly snickering.

Oh, he was _so_ going to throw a party for Cupcake later, assuming she survived, but he was sure she would. She was just that kind of spider.

He looked over at Ellie’s loud huff. “Oh, come on! It’s not even loaded!” she groaned in disgust. She moved to chuck the gun in the garbage can but paused as her eyes fell on the still-screaming corporal. “But that doesn’t mean it can’t still be useful…” Grinning cheekily, she wound up and launched it at the guy’s head.

_CLONK._

A body hit the floor, moaning in pain.

Henry drew his own gun out from under his jacket (double checking that it was, in fact, loaded), but kept the safety on for now. He really wasn’t fixin’ to blow his leg off today.

Casually strolling over to the slowly shifting body curled up on the floor with head gripped in hands, Henry scooped Cupcake up and returned her to his pocket, stroking her with a finger as thanks. He owed her one.

Meanwhile, Ellie had pushed the big red button on the wall to open up the roof and was busy scrambling the two helicopters and one very small jet sitting in the hangar. Henry stood guard and made sure the corporal didn’t get up by keeping his gun trained on him.

The helicopters rose up out of the roof and zipped away, as expected.

What they had forgotten, Henry realized as he watched the jet scream past him and the corporal, was that _planes_ have to have a running start.

The dull-green jet smashed through the side wall of the hangar in a screech of twisting metal and continued down its imaginary runway, which resulted in even more screams than before. Henry and Ellie winced as a few Toppats were forced to dive out of the way in addition to all the military personnel.

Oops.

Luckily, the plane quickly got itself up off the ground and was soon soaring away to join the helicopters in their crazed, random flights.

Henry took the opportunity to turn on his earpiece and waved for Ellie to do the same.

“Hey, we need someone to bring the bags to the Electrical Center!” Ellie half-shouted into hers. The giant hole in the wall made the fairly quiet hangar a lot less quiet, and the gunshots on the other end weren’t helping.

 _“I got ‘em! I’m on my way!”_ Uncle Right shouted back, making Henry wince at the deafening crackly noise.

He would have liked to keep his earpiece on, but it was just too loud and all the static and bangs over the mic were hurting his ears. He turned it off. A moment later, Ellie did too after a particularly screechy burst of static.

Henry backed out of the new gaping hole in the wall, gun still pointed at the corporal just in case, and Ellie joined him in their run to the next hangar. (Henry was proud of the fact that he nearly slipped only twice, which beat out Ellie’s four times.) Luckily, there were no more people in any of them and they were able to successfully scramble several more helicopters and one more jet, making a sky a battlefield of its own. They got a great view of the fireworks when two helicopters crashed into each other, the booming explosion ripping through the complex and bathing everything in orange as flaming debris fell and destroyed half a building.

Working together to retrace their steps, they began to backtrack to the Electrical Center, trying to avoid the soapy sludge that was starting to mix with mud and staying far away from the tanks, which each had groups of soldiers clustered, trying to contain it. Small groups of Toppats were trickling in from the direction of the front entrance, guns blazing, putting pressure on the government.

Ellie slowed down a little, letting Henry catch up to her. “What a view, am I right?” she shouted gleefully, sweeping an arm over the chaos. “This is better than any movie _I’ve_ ever seen!”

A tank chose that moment to smash into the side of a building, nicely complementing the statement.

Surveying the glorious scene, Henry’s eyes lit up with more than just light from the flaming helicopter remains. He laughed, loud and clear and utterly exhilarated, and his best friend laughed with him.


	5. Inhibitors

It was getting harder to move around as the two Toppats got closer to the Electrical Center. (It was closer to the Laundry Facility, which Henry had dubbed Ground Zero.) At this point they were forced to just slosh through the gentle waves of soapy water and bubbles, as there weren’t any bare patches of ground anymore.

At least they were nearly there. Henry was _just_ close enough to make out the sign out front, though even if he couldn’t, there were big gray electrical box things sitting right outside.

“Nearly…there…” Ellie echoed, huffing a bit. Wading through all that soap was hard work.

After a careful wade that felt like twenty minutes but probably took more like two, they were at the front doors. Ellie, being Ellie, turned and dramatically kicked them in.

Which caused all six military officials hiding in the building to turn and look at them.

…This could be a problem.

Wait, no. They could play this right.

Couldn’t overpower them. The soldiers were all armed, all much bigger than them, and outnumbered them three to one.

Couldn’t avoid them. They had to be here for the next part of their plan.

Which left tricking them. They just had to be careful, concise, and convincing. Miss Carol’s Three C’s of covert ops.

Henry was sure this would work. It _had_ to. He took a deep breath and let out a loud gasp of what he hoped sounded like terror and relief. He stepped forward and fell to his knees, even emitting a pathetic whimper that made him hate himself but would probably convince these guys to let them stay here. They could worry about getting to their final chess pieces later.

It was about that moment that he remembered he was holding a gun, which didn’t really help his ‘defenseless child’ image. Still, he thought he was pretty convincing.

Fortunately, Ellie seemed to understand what he was going for and tried to help him out.

“Is it safe here? We’ve been trying to get away from all the scary stuff outside for _ages!_ Would you please let us stay here with you? We’re so scared!”

Henry was pretty impressed with how good her performance was, given the zero warning she had. She’d picked up acting so quickly.

A good thing, too, because it looked like it was working.

One of the soldiers smiled reassuringly at them. “Of course you can stay with us! We’d be happy to—”

_“Come in, all! This is Corporal Lee reporting from Hangar One! Those two lost kids are Toppat spies! They attacked me and scrambled all the tanks and aircraft! Be on the lookout! Over!”_

The soldier’s walkie-talkie buzzed again, then fell silent.

Henry closed his eyes and said a very rude word that would have Uncle Reginald putting soap in his mouth if he heard.

The soldiers were all looking at them again, except this time they looked angry.

“Toppat spies, huh?” one said, glancing at the others and snorting derisively.

Henry and Ellie were fast, but the soldier closest to the doors was faster. He got between them and their only escape route and pointed his rifle at them. The pair turned around, but the rest of the soldiers had surrounded them with guns out.

They were trapped.

* * *

Even if he had to sit in a glorified time-out corner with Ellie, Henry just wished he could have at least kept his gun.

As it was, the soldiers had confiscated it and it was sitting in the holster of the tallest one. Thank goodness they hadn’t noticed Cupcake; Henry wasn’t sure what he would have done of they’d taken his new many-legged friend.

What they _did_ notice were the earpieces. They’d taken them and crushed them under their heavy-duty boots. So now they had no way to contact the other Toppats.

Great.

But, if there was one silver lining to this, Henry mused, it was that the government didn’t get their hands on the scrambler. Ellie had hidden it away under her jacket again before they got to the Electrical Center and managed to convince the soldiers that she’d dropped it at the hangars. According to Uncle Reginald, it was a Toppat original invention and the government hasn’t been able to steal or replicate it. It was “imperative” that they not let the government get the scrambler, or the Toppats would lose a big “technological advantage”.

Well, mission accomplished. So far. Now their _other_ ongoing mission was to wait for help to arrive. One of the soldiers had used the walkie-talkie to contact General Canterbury and tell him that they were Toppat spies and where they were, so he and Ellie just had to hope that their fellow Toppats got there before the General did.

Henry checked his watch. Forty minutes left.

Ellie snarled and slammed a fist into the ground, startling him and making him jump. He looked at her in surprise, but she just looked away, her red hair falling over her face, and balled up her fists tightly.

After a moment, Henry thought he knew why. At the orphanage, he had no control. Everyone told him how he should spend every second of every day. Get up, go to school, study, do hours of homework. Eat this, Henry, and if you don’t like it then that’s too bad, you don’t get anything else tonight. Don’t steal. Don’t ram the caretakers with your scooter.

Do this, Henry.

Do that, Henry.

He hated that. He _hated_ that feeling of everyone deciding everything for him, acting like they knew what was best for him better than he did.

That feeling of being helpless. At the mercy of others. Never taken seriously.

It made him so angry. So angry and upset.

Just like Ellie.

He tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention. When she didn’t move, he tapped more forcefully until she finally sighed and dragged her eyes up to meet his.

“What?” she muttered sullenly.

Henry hesitated. She didn’t know much sign language yet, but it might still be enough.

He’d make it enough.

‘E-L-L-I-E.’ He spelled out her name, since they hadn’t agreed on a name sign for her yet. ‘I understand how you feel.’

“Do you.”

“Quiet,” grunted one of the soldiers guarding them, raising his gun slightly, just enough to make it a threat.

After a dark glare at the soldier, Henry looked back to Ellie and nodded. ‘At the O-R-P-H-A-N-A-G-E. Everyone always told me what to do. I couldn’t choose anything for myself. I felt…’ He didn’t really know a better word in sign yet, so he went with ‘…bad.’

Ellie blinked, frowning. She lifted her own hands. ‘I don’t understand. What was the last H-A-L-F?’

Henry slowly spelled out everything he’d just said, walking her through the movements. Since they weren’t making any noise and kept the movements small, the soldiers didn’t seem to realize what they were doing and stop them.

This time, Ellie was the one to hesitate. ‘Yes. Me.’ At Henry confused pause, she tried again. ‘Yes. You and me. We are the S-A-M-E. At the O-R-P-H-N-A-G-E. Before the Toppat Clan.’

She’d misspelled ‘orphanage’, but Henry didn’t care. They were getting somewhere.

‘I am…O-N-L-Y person who can C-O-N-T-R-O-L me. No one else,’ she continued. “The O-R-P-H-N-A-G-E people couldn’t. My teachers couldn’t. And these G-O-V people can’t.’ Her sharp eyes almost startled him with their intensity. “I…die, before being T-R-A-P-P-E-D and…sad, and W-E-A-K.’

 _That_ could something Henry could agree with. ‘Not T-R-A-P-P-E-D forever,’ he began, making with movements slightly fiercer. ‘Waiting. W-A-I-T-I-N-G. For the Toppats.’

Ellie cautiously nodded once, looking a little more upbeat.

‘We’ll…P-R-O-V-E to them that we are strong. Stronger than them. The best.’

A slow smile. ‘Yes.’ Ellie shot a dark look at the soldiers, more confident now. ‘Yes.’ She reached out, but stopped and drew her arm back in, eyes flickering with unsureness. But a couple seconds later she blew out a sigh and awkwardly patted him on the shoulder, giving him a surprisingly warm and genuine smile. ‘Thank you.’

Henry smiled back, just as awkward. ‘You’re welcome.’

They sat cross-legged in a comfortable near-silence, broken only by the soldiers quietly talking and the explosions from right outside.

Until the front doors flew open.

Henry’s head snapped up, heart soaring—

And it plummeted just as quickly.

General Canterbury, dripping in soapy water and bubbles, strode into the room, followed by a furious just-as-soaked Lieutenant Galeforce and a few other green-uniformed lackeys.

“You two,” snarled Galeforce, jabbing a finger at Henry and Ellie, “are in big, _big_ trouble.”

* * *

Things were looking bad and getting worse by the second, Henry internally groaned, still sitting next to Ellie in the not-a-time-out corner.

All the soldiers, old and new, had them surrounded in a semicircle around the wall while the General and Galeforce were talking about what to do with them.

While they were sitting right there.

_Rude._

“Well, _I_ think those brats should go to juvenile detention!” Galeforce was loudly arguing, wildly waving an arm at them.

General Canterbury sighed and adjusted his hat. “I think they can be reformed, Lieutenant,” he replied calmly. “They’re just kids. If we can get to them now, reverse everything the Toppats have taught them—”

“Fat chance!” Ellie viciously spat, flipping him off with both hands.

“—then they could very well become respectable citizens,” he finished, raising his voice and ignoring the interruption. “We can have them placed in a nice, normal home of law-abiding people.”

Henry didn’t bother trying to hide his loud snort. That was the dumbest, most pompous thing he’d ever heard. And he’d heard a _lot_ of dumb and pompous things from everyone around him before joining the Toppats.

“But, General—”

“That is my decision.”

“But—”

_“That is my decision, Lieutenant Galeforce.”_

Galeforce looked very much like he wanted to keep arguing, but backed down. “As you say, General,” he grumbled, reluctantly saluting.

“Good.” The General strolled up to where Henry and Ellie were sitting, knelt down, and looked at them both with an obnoxiously holier-than-thou air. “Now, Henry, Ellie—if those are your real names—I think we can help you to become better people with the right placement family. What do you say we—”

_BOOM._

For the second time that day, the front doors were kicked in.

Except this time, it was by exactly who Henry wanted to see.

“Oi! _Get away from our kids!”_ Uncle Right shouted, gun pointed straight at the General, his voice booming through the building and shocking the occupants into silence.

Uncle Reginald, Miss Carol, and a few other Toppats joined him, silhouetted in the doorway.

Henry thought he might cry in relief.

His family was here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not really familiar with sign language at all, so I hope I did a decent job of depicting a conversation with it, especially when both are children and one doesn't know much at all.
> 
> I've always thought that the scrambler was probably a Toppat invention, considering that the only time we see it is with a Toppat user (Henry after RPE) and that the government doesn't seem to have a similar device in any route.


	6. Ligase

The General, Galeforce, and the soldiers recovered from the shock quickly, but the Toppats already had the element of surprise. Before any of them could blink, the Toppats had already charged.

Uncle Right ran straight for the General, that Henry could see, though there was so much commotion that he couldn’t tell who else was fighting who.

As gunshots rang out around them, General Canterbury suddenly stumbled to the side, clutching his arm and grunting, and Henry realized the General been hit by Uncle Right’s shot as he ran closer.

Uncle Right dropped his shoulder and body slammed the General, sending them both into a tumble as the latter frantically tried to get his gun out.

Henry scrambled to his feet, pulling Ellie up with him, and searched the room for the tallest soldier. He refused to be useless in this fight.

And there he was, having a shootout with Miss Carol.

He would fix that.

He pointed to the soldier, making sure Ellie could see. She squinted, eyes following his finger’s direction.

“Tallest guy? Black hair?”

Henry nodded, returning Ellie’s smirk.

She cracked her knuckles. “Cool. Let’s get ‘im.”

They quickly decided on what Miss Carol called a _synchronized takedown_ (though in this case, it was less _synchronized_ and more _combining forces_ ) _._ Ducking low to avoid any stray bullets, they darted across the room, picking up speed until—

— _WHUMP._

And the tallest soldier was down, crushed under the force of two high-speed eight-year-olds.

Ellie grabbed his head and slammed it into the floor, just to be safe.

Ignoring the soldier’s pained groan, Henry undid the extra holster and took his handgun back. The comforting weight of cool metal fit into his hand perfectly.

He looked up at the sudden voice from above them. “Hey, that was good teamwork right there,” Miss Carol congratulated them, ushering them behind an electrical hub to take cover.

“Thanks!” Ellie said, looking very pleased with herself.

Henry opted to just give her a smile and a thumbs-up with his free hand.

“But it’s not over just yet.” Her bright red lips quirked up and she pulled two familiar top hats out of her suit jacket, one dark blue and one pale lavender, neatly folded in on themselves. Giving them a quick shake to restore them to their original forms, she presented them to their rightful owners. “Thought you’d want these back.”

“Aw, yeah!” Ellie cheered as they both took them and firmly returned them to their heads. “’Bout time, thought we’d never be showing our Toppat pride again!”

Miss Carol peeked around the hub to the battlefield and sighed. “Sorry it took so long to get to you guys,” she apologized, looking back at them. “Turns out we got some bad information and the map we showed you wasn’t entirely accurate. We thought that the armory—or, you know, armor _ies_ , as it turns out—were right by the front entrance, and that we could meet you guys right after we entered and help you with whatever the bags were for. Then we would have gotten you out. We never meant for you to have to be in the thick of things like this.” She paused. “Also, it took a while because we had to get through the soap-pocalypse without breaking any bones. Good job with that.”

Ellie grinned and puffed her chest out. “Thanks again! It was my idea!”

Miss Carol smiled. “And a good one at that.” Her smile suddenly turned mischievous, and she looked around conspiratorially and slightly lowered her voice, just enough to be heard over the fighting. “You didn’t hear it from me, but after we lost the signals on your earpieces, the Chief and Right Hand Man were literally falling over themselves sprinting over here.”

Henry giggled at the mental image. His uncles, slipping everywhere and sliding on an imaginary soapy slip ‘n slide just like Galeforce, guns drawn and still shooting because they were just that epic.

“Anyway,” Miss Carol continued, more serious now, “ we’re going to get you two out of here. It’s getting too dangerous.”

“No, wait!” Ellie quickly interjected. “We still have to do the final part of our plan!”

Henry nodded so fiercely his top hat nearly fell off. He was determined to see this through; he was no quitter, and neither was Ellie. They were in this together.

Miss Carol’s eyes jerked back up to the fighting at a particularly loud crash. “I have to go help them. We’ll talk about this later. Stay here, okay? I mean it. _Don’t move from this spot_ until we say so.”

With that, she ran back out into the open and started helping another Toppat with a couple soldiers.

Henry sighed in disappointment and peeked over the top of the hub. All that effort to get his gun back, and he couldn’t even join the fight? He was getting pretty good! He was _sure_ he could be useful!

“You know,” Ellie said slowly, looking pointedly at his gun, “all Miss Carol said was that we couldn’t _move_ from this spot. She didn’t say anything about _shooting_ from this spot.”

Henry grinned wide at his friend and cocked his gun, stabilizing it against the top of the hub with a cheery glint in his eye.

Ah, loopholes. A Toppat’s best friend.

Locking his eyes on his first target, Henry steadied his gun, took a deep breath, and fired.

It missed.

He quickly lined up another shot. That one missed too.

He huffed in frustration. It was a lot harder to hit quickly moving targets with so much noise and commotion, but he forced himself to try to ignore it. It wouldn’t help anything to get upset; he’d probably just miss even _more_ shots, and he needed to hit at least one. He only had six tries before he ran out of bullets.

Quick eyes swept the room for a new target. Maybe the two privates fighting Mr. Thomas and Mr. Geoffrey in the corner?

Yeah, they would do.

His third shot whizzed between the shoulders of both privates, missing them both but startling them enough to allow the two Toppats to get the upper hand.

Well, it wasn’t what he was going for, but hey, it worked.

His fourth shot hit the gun-holding hand of some captain, and the man dropped the gun, howling and clutching his injured hand.

_Hey, that was actually a pretty good shot!_

Emboldened, Henry quickly prepared his fifth shot.

A little _too_ quickly, because it went so wide he wouldn’t be entirely surprised if it somehow managed to hit _himself_. (It didn’t. It hit the far wall.)

Ellie pulled him back down. “Relax, Henry,” she said with an encouraging smile. “You got one more shot. Don’t waste it.”

 _One more shot._ He had to make it count.

Henry and Ellie flew to their feet and Henry snapped his head around at the horribly familiar shout. Uncle Reginald was pinned to the floor by Galeforce’s knee. His uncle’s gun was on the floor out of his reach, and he had grabbed Galeforce’s, struggling with the other man for control of it.

But Galeforce was stronger, and the gun barrel slowly wavered back down towards Uncle Reginald as Henry looked on in horror.

Across the room, Uncle Right kicked the General in the kneecap and raised his gun, shooting it at Galeforce.

It just clicked. It was empty.

All the other Toppats couldn’t stop their own fights or they would get shot.

Uncle Right swore loudly and started running, but he wasn’t going to make it, he was too far away—

—BANG.

In his state of shock, Henry barely realized what had happened.

In the best, one-in-a-million shot he’d ever made, he’d shot the gun right out of both of their hands, without harming either.

* * *

“Thank you for the assist, Henry,” Uncle Reginald said, a relieved smile warming his face as he looked down at him.

After Henry’s shot, Uncle Right was able to make it to the two and fight off Galeforce with some super-cool fighting moves. Then the tide quickly turned for the Toppats and they were able to subdue the rest of the government officials, who were currently groaning on the floor in a loose pile.

Henry smiled back, stepping forward and hugging him around his middle, the only spot he could really reach. He didn’t know _what_ he would have done if his favorite uncle (though Uncle Right was also his favorite) had been hurt, no matter how uptight he could get when he made Henry clean his room even when it didn’t need it.

“Now, will you two tell us what you need these bags for?” Uncle Right cut in questioningly, picking up the satchels from where they had been dropped on the floor and holding them up.

Henry stepped back and returned to Ellie’s side, where they both grabbed a bag and slung it cross-body over a shoulder.

Henry and Ellie smirked at each other and led everyone over to the electrical hub in the far corner, pulling out the large brown box from behind it.

“What the—" Uncle Right stuttered. “What were they thinkin’, puttin’ these ‘ere!?” He pulled out a flashbang, holding it between a thumb and forefinger and holding it at arm’s length like it was about to bite him.

Every Toppat turned at General Canterbury’s surprised, if weak, “What?”

“Those absolutely should not be there…” the General trailed off, confused and still clutching his arm as best he could while beaten down and feet tied with his own tie.

The tallest private, who had taken Henry’s gun, coughed awkwardly and looked incredibly embarrassed. “Um…I may have put them there on my way back to the weapon armory…I was in a hurry…I was going to come back for them, I swear!”

If looks could kill, the private would be a smoking crater. “You what?” the General said softly, looking every bit like a viper about to strike.

“U-Um…”

“Private Gray, you are hereby dishonorably discharged from the military. As soon as we are free, you will gather your things and leave the premises.”

Gray somehow sank even deeper into the floor. “Yes, General…”

“Anyway,” Uncle Right asserted, turning back to Henry and Ellie and holding up the flashbang, “this was your plan? Shove a bunch of these in a bag and throw them everywhere?”

“Kinda, yeah,” Ellie replied with a hesitant smile.

“Well then,” said a voice from behind them, “it’s a rather good thing I was asked to bring this, yes?”

Henry turned around to find Thomas Chestershire sliding a tall, thin bag off his back and unzipping it. Reaching in, he pulled out a large, pale blue object, gleaming in the light filtering through the windows.

_My scooter!_

His beloved scooter, new and improved after the airship’s engineering and design teams had gotten to it. (His uncles hadn’t been super happy about the _upgrades_ at first, but they warmed up to it eventually.) Boasting a fresh coat of paint, a stronger motor, a retractable basket and towing cable, a button to activate spiked wheels, rocket thrusters, and more, it was the coolest ride he ever could have hoped for.

No better time to put it to good use than now.

Mr. Thomas unfolded the scooter and held it up for them to see. Geoffrey Plumb, Mr. Thomas’s friend, helped him set it down and flip out the kickstand.

With a quick nod of thanks to Mr. Thomas and Mr. Geoffrey, Henry moved to get on his scooter.

“Now hold on one moment, Henry,” Uncle Reginald said, putting an arm out and stopping Henry. “Carol and I were talking about how we should get you out of here. With all these gunfights and scrambled military vehicles and general explosions—” a well-timed explosion outside rumbled through the building “—we were thinking that it’s getting too intense for you and Ellie to stay.”

“But our plan!” Ellie objected, stepping up next to Henry.

Uncle Reginald sighed. “It’s just too dangerous for you two to be running—riding—around with all this going on. You could get hurt. I only asked Thomas to bring your scooter so you two could get out of here more quickly.”

Henry knew that there were risks on missions; there always were. That was just the price of Toppat life. But how to convince Uncle Reginald that it’s a risk he and Ellie are willing to take? Sure, they were smaller than most Toppats, but that didn’t make them useless. It had its advantages, to be sure. Like climbing through tight spaces, or special covert ops like they were doing right now.

“Reg, better take a look at this.” Uncle Right, who had been (very carefully) rummaging around the box, pulled out a different device. “Now what do we ‘ave ‘ere?”

It must have been at the bottom of the box, as Henry hadn’t seen it the last time he and Ellie looked in the box. It was a small spindly object about the size of a large candy bar. It looked a lot like the pictures of viruses Henry had seen in his science lessons; just a lot bigger and made of sleek metal, with the head being cylindrical instead of a crystal shape. On the very top of the device was a single small yellow button. It didn’t have any name or instructions printed on it like the flashbangs, so he had no clue as to what it was actually for.

Fortunately for them, they had a pile of military men who did.

Uncle Right strode over to them, waving the device at them. “Oi! What’s this do?”

When stoic glares and silence were all that greeted him, he pulled out his gun and repeated the question.

The General’s intense stare burned a hole into Gray. “Former Private Gray, why don’t _you_ tell him what it is? You know, that device that I explicitly told you to make sure it went with the others?”

Henry could see the nervous sweat starting to trickle down Gray’s neck. (Gross.)

“Um, well…it’s a one-way shield bubble.”

 _Oh! So that’s what it looks like!_ Their little revolutionaries had never described how it actually looked…

Gray kept speaking. “New t-technology, the government just finalized the design. You, uh, turn it on with the button, and a shield bubble extends around the base in a two-meter radius. Since it’s one-way, then things can pass from inside to outside, but not o-outside to inside.”

Uncle Right hummed. “And to turn it off?”

“J-just press the button again.”

“And what was it doin’ in a box of flashbangs?”

“Um, it was hidden in there, since it was new tech, to make sure no enemies of the government…found it…” Gray’s voice died at the General’s increasingly murderous eyes.

“Hey!” Ellie grinned and ran up to Uncle Right, Henry hot on her heels. “If Henry and I use that, can we do our flashbang plan? We’ll be perfectly safe, nothing could even get to us through that! And we can prove that we’re really great Clan members!”

Uncles Reginald walked up and shared an unreadable glance with Uncle Right. After a moment, the latter nodded, and the two looked back at them.

“Very well,” Uncle Reginald said. “We will allow you to enact your plan, so long as you promise to _stay in the bubble at all times_ and _do not leave it under any circumstances._ Oh, and here, we have extra earpieces for you. It’s always wise to bring spares, never forget that.” After handing them out, he continued. “When we tell you to it’s time to leave the complex, _you listen._ You leave immediately, no questions asked. If you do not, _there will be consequences._ Am I clear?”

“Crystal!” Ellie immediately replied, determination leaking into her crooked grin. Henry nodded seriously. He would never break a promise to his family.

“Good. Now, let’s discuss how you two are going to do this…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the top hats are back! Always important to look your best while assaulting people's hearing and vision!


	7. Catalysis

The plan was set.

The satchels were both filled to the brim with flashbangs. Any that didn’t fit went into the scooter’s front basket. The shield bubble device was firmly tied down to the handlebars, where, once activated, the bubble could extend over the entire scooter and both people on it. Henry and Ellie would ride on the scooter (with Henry driving, of course) and would throw flashbangs into buildings and down alleys and into crowds and the like; but never directly in front of them, Miss Carol had warned them, or they would just drive right into it. Henry’s uncles _very thoroughly_ went over how they should handle them, and advised them to throw it out of the shield bubble the instant they thought something might go wrong.

They were given sunglasses and earmuffs scavenged from the living quarters to protect them from the effects, but the adults didn’t want to take any chances, and Henry agreed. He didn’t particularly like the idea of being blinded and deafened, even if it was just temporarily. Ellie didn’t either, judging by how little she objected to the large fluffy pink earmuffs with cat ears on top. (According to one of the tied-up captains, they belonged to his partner’s daughters. Henry personally thought they were pretty cool. Cats were master warriors and thieves just like the Toppat Clan; who _wouldn’t_ want to look like one?)

Ellie had been thrilled about the sunglasses, though.

They had done a test, stepping just outside the Electrical Center, to make sure that they could still see clearly enough with the sunglasses. It was pretty sunny out, so they could. They could also use the new earpieces to communicate with each other while wearing the earmuffs over top, which would be very useful during a high-speed scooter ride surrounded by explosions. All of the adults would be able to tune in at any time as well. The labels on the flashbangs said that they were low-grade and therefore weaker, so everyone agreed that the sunglasses and earmuffs combined with the shield bubble would be enough.

They were ready. All that needed to be done was actually get started.

Henry checked his watch. Twenty minutes left.

“Alright, it’s go time.” Ellie put a foot up on the scooter and looked at Henry expectantly. Stepping up on the scooter in front of her and firmly grasping the handlebars, Henry smiled at all the other Toppats surrounding them and flashed them a thumbs-up. Doing a last check that the device was secured, he pressed the yellow button on the top and an orange-tinted bubble expanded around himself, Ellie, and the scooter, with a little room to spare. He also activated the spiked wheels for a better grip on the soapy ground.

With that, every Toppat in the building blasted out the door into the chaos, guns drawn (except Henry’s, which was back under his jacket), led by a pale blue scooter blitzing across the ground.

“Woooo!” Henry could hear Ellie’s exhilarated shriek loud and clear over the earpieces as she pulled out the first flashbang from her bag with one hand, as the other arm had to wrap around Henry’s middle to hold on. “Who has the honor of being Victim Number One, Henry?”

Henry considered as the wind whipped through his hair and identical metal buildings raced past. Glancing to the side and spotting a small group of soldiers running after a stampeding tank, he quickly pointed a finger at them, but made sure to keep them to off to the side.

Ellie pulled out the pin with her teeth and hurled the flashbang at the soldiers, spitting out the pin right after. It passed through the bubble right as a pebble flung up by the scooter wheels bounced off the outside, nearly colliding with each other. They didn’t, however, and the flashbang sailed in a graceful arc over another wave of soap and landed directly in the middle of the group. As expected, an impossibly bright flash whited out the sky for an instant, and at the same time an impossibly loud _BOOM_ shook the world. The soldiers fell over themselves in shock, stumbling; half of them were feeling around with eyes tightly shut, and the other half just had their hands over their ears.

Not that it mattered much to the Toppat riders, for they were already a fair distance off and speeding away.

Ellie was the one to find their second set of victims; a group of five who were showering a crazed helicopter with bullets from a rooftop. That didn’t last long, as five seconds later they had met the same fate as the first set, though one of them ended up stumbling off the roof and falling into one of the larger surges of bubbles. (A head popped out of the bubbles shortly after, gagging and spitting out soap and vowing to never make his children put soap in their mouths for swearing ever again.)

And the riders rode on.

Henry and Ellie settled into a routine. One of them would spot a good place to throw a flashbang. They would take turns, where Ellie would either take one from her bag and throw it herself, or take one from Henry’s bag, pull the pin, and give it to him to throw, so he could join in without being too distracted from driving.

Oh, it was great fun adding to the chaos—green uniforms everywhere slipping, falling, sliding; running after or running away from tanks and aircraft; shooting at everything and nothing. And now?

Now, those people wouldn’t even be able to see or hear themselves doing it, with some nice dizziness to boot.

But honestly, if Henry had to admit it?

As fun as throwing the stun grenades around was, the best part about it was just having fun with his friend. _Friends_ , actually, he reminded himself; Cupcake was happily waving her two front legs around in his pocket. No doubt she was enjoying the ride too. Henry would have to take her on a lot more once he got back to the airship. But for now, he should probably focus on driving the scooter so he and Ellie didn’t end up hitting a building or skidding out on the slippery ground or getting run over by a feral tank or something. (He was starting to think that everything Ellie scrambled had a mind of its own. A plane kept divebombing one of the tanks, and he could have sworn he saw two other tanks ram each other over which one got to bust through the doors of the General’s office. One of them had even _jumped in the air_ at one point, and who knows how it managed _that._ From what he could tell, the one with more dents won. Maybe dents were a tank’s version of battle scars?)

Henry shook his head. Right. Scooter. Not crashing.

After Ellie threw the next flashbang into a building they’d seen a couple government people run into—her aim was getting very good, as was Henry’s—she paused. “We’ve gone through most of them,” she said, nodding at their empty bags and the mostly empty basket while her arms were still securely wrapped around Henry’s middle. “I was thinking we could circle back to the Electrical Center and set off the last few over there.”

Henry nodded. That was a good idea. They’d already stunned just about everyone in this area. Why not go back and double dip a bit? Those government types would surely love a second round, heh. Maybe they could give Galeforce and the General a nice little gift and throw one _into_ the Center. As long as they avoided flashbang-ing _that_ area, they were fine.

He swung the scooter around in a wide U-turn, nearly running over a military official who had just slipped in the sudsy mud and was lying prone on the ground, but he managed to avoid the man. (He didn’t much like the government, but he didn’t want to spear anyone with spiked wheels. Like Uncle Reginald had said, the Toppats weren’t _barbarians._ ) He flinched as a couple stray bullets ricocheted off the bubble shield. His uncles were right; having it around them was the only way to ensure his and Ellie’s safety. He hadn’t really thought about that before, but that was pretty important, wasn’t it?

He focused on going back the way they came as Ellie threw another flashbang behind them. Only a couple left in the basket; they’d better make them count. A minute later, he could just start to see the Electrical Center cresting over the horizon.

Great! They were nearly—

_Bzzzzt._

Something small hit the bubble shield and it fizzled out.

In his shock, he barely heard Ellie’s shout of surprise over the earpiece as he slammed on the brakes. As they slowed down, a green blur darted towards them. Henry had maybe a half-second to register it before it slammed into him, knocking him off the scooter and sending them skidding across the ground. The scooter wobbled and toppled over, sending it, Ellie, and the last couple flashbangs into a similar skid past them.

When Henry and the blur came to a stop (Henry had never been more glad for the soapy ground making sure he and Ellie weren’t very scraped up), he found himself staring up into Galeforce’s furious snarl.

(A screech of twisting metal.)

The man smirked down at him from where he was pinning Henry to the ground by the throat. Henry struggled, but it didn’t do any good against someone much bigger and stronger than him. He tried to reach for his gun. _Galeforce_ didn’t know that it was empty, after all. But Galeforce slapped his hand away.

(The rumble of a motor.)

“Bet you thought you and the other brat had gotten away, huh? With your stolen bubble shield? Ha! Guess you didn’t know that it can be disrupted with an electrical surge. Good thing you left me in the Electrical Center, where there were plenty of surge pellets lying around!” Galeforce laughed. “You are going to regret everythi—huh!?”

_CLANG._

And suddenly the weight on Henry was gone, thrown off of him and rolling away with several missing teeth and a new bump on his head.

Ellie zipped past him, dropping the stop sign she’d used to hit Galeforce. She circled around and came to a stop next to Henry. The redhead grinned down at Henry and held out a hand. “You good?”

Henry grinned back and took her hand, swinging himself back up onto the front half of the scooter as Ellie stepped back onto the back half. After driving them into the nearest building for cover, which turned out to be the cafeteria, he stopped and turned to face her. ‘How?’ he signed, tilting his head.

“How did I do it? Heh, you know that towing cable this thing has? Well, there was a stop sign nearby, so I attached the cable to the pole and ripped it out of the ground with the scooter. Then I just took it and knocked a head.” She punched a fist into her palm and sighed happily. “Yeah, that was _epic._ ” She then glanced at the scooter’s handlebars, where the bubble shield device was still tied down, though it had been loosened slightly by the scooter’s fall. “Anyway, we should probably check that the shield thing still works.”

A press of the yellow button on top confirmed that it did, and soon Henry and Ellie were back on the scooter and speeding out the door, though this time without any flashbangs, as the last two had been swept away in the waves of detergent when the scooter fell.

Their job was nearly done. Now they just needed to wait for the _actual_ final part of the plan.

Henry checked his watch. Two minutes left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Conversely to the scrambler, the bubble shield appears to be a government invention, since we only see it when Henry is on the government's side. (And in IoaS from StD, but I don't think that's the same device--different color.) Since the government invented it, it follows that they would also have a way to _break_ it...
> 
> In other news, Ellie continues to be an epic badass. She sure has a way with stop signs!


	8. Terminators

The scrambler’s effect on machinery wasn’t permanent, Miss Carol had explained during Henry and Ellie’s week of training. It lasted one hour, and then it would wear off and the machines would go back to normal.

The day before the mission, Henry had asked for a watch, and had been given one. A very accurate one, according to Mr. Krieghaus, who had programmed and calibrated it himself. All the better to count down to _exactly_ the moment the scrambling wore off.

Which, Henry realized as he checked his watch one final time, was right now.

The scooter screeched to a stop. On the other side of the complex, the tanks stopped and the aircraft that weren’t destroyed landed. The explosions stopped.

Henry and Ellie hopped off the scooter and wheeled it into the kindergarten building, still just inside the orange-tinted bubble shield. The classroom was empty when they walked in, but they were expecting that. All the students had told them exactly where the bunker was, after all. And how to get into it.

Henry grinned at the pile of items in the corner as they walked up to a small bookshelf against the wall and Henry pulled out the only green book on the shelf. When the book was halfway out, it clicked and the bookshelf slid to one side, revealing a set of steps leading down into an underground cement room.

Henry turned off the bubble shield (otherwise they wouldn’t be able to get back on the scooter once they left the bubble) and led Ellie down the steps, where they found all of the kindergartners and their wide-eyed teacher sitting on the floor.

The teacher quickly stood up as they came down the stairs. “How did you get in here? Do you need help? It’s dangerous outside! What are you…” She trailed off as her eyes fell on their top hats, perched on top of the fuzzy pink earmuffs. When she found her voice again, it had a very different tone. “You…you…”

“Are Toppats,” Ellie cheerfully finished, adjusting her top hat and lowering her sunglasses for a moment. “Thanks for noticing!”

Henry stood in front of the kindergartners and raised his hands. ‘It’s time,’ he signed. ‘The T-A-N-K-S and A-I-R…things are normal now.’

‘Great!’ Matilda signed back from the front of the group, looking excited.

Matilda’s friend grinned and relayed the message.

The teacher’s jaw dropped. “You all knew this would happen!? What else did they tell you?”

A boy with red headphones around his neck looked the teacher straight in the face. “The truth!” he chirped happily.

Henry smiled. Good old Charles. Though a little shy and quiet and first, he had opened up and introduced himself when Henry and Ellie started to prep all of the students for their revolution. Henry rather liked him and trusted that he and their other revolutionaries would keep quiet until the time came with the select few details they gave them. (Not enough to derail the plan if they told, but enough to get them out of the line of fire until he and Ellie came to get them.)

With that, a dozen kindergarteners ran out of the bunker and booked it for the items in the corner. Boxes of crayons, stuffed animals, picture books, and more were gathered up and shoved into the students’ backpacks as Henry and Ellie hopped back on the scooter and reactivated the bubble shield, just in case. (The kindergarteners were completely safe from any government people attacking them. As Toppats, Henry and Ellie couldn’t count on that even though they were also kids. Not after what Galeforce and that one corporal pulled.)

Every single person in the room completely ignored the teacher, who was scurrying around and trying to get the students to stop.

“Please, children—just listen to me—stop this at once—!”

They didn’t, of course, and when the contents of the pile were all safely in backpacks, Henry revved the motor and led them out of the building.

“Be careful of the soap!” Ellie called back to them as the wheel spikes were activated and caught onto dirt. Henry made sure to lead them all through the driest ground he could see, which was getting easier; the soap was starting to settle and spread out enough that moving around wasn’t as big of a problem anymore.

Just then, their earpieces crackled to life and Miss Carol’s voice filled their ears. “The scrambling has worn off. Go ahead and get out of the complex. We’ll meet you there. Call us if you get into any trouble. That bubble’s still working, right?”

As Ellie replied to Miss Carol, Henry heard the kindergartners begin shouting the slogans of their Math Revolution as they ran through the complex, staying together as one large mass of six-year-olds as their teacher chased them to no avail.

“No more math!”

“Math is a vi—a viol—against our rights!”

“Math is _evil_ and we won’t stand for it!”

One of them had somehow gotten their hands on a megaphone, so the chants boomed around them, getting the attention of everyone in a hundred-meter radius. The items in the backpacks began flying everywhere, several hitting nearby soldiers, who all lowered their guns if they were holding one and stared in disbelief at the sight.

The anti-math shouting continued as they approached the Electrical Center again, Henry slowing down quite a bit so the kindergarteners could catch up. He snorted in amusement when he spotted a gap-toothed Galeforce getting chewed out by General Canterbury (who had apparently gotten free, just as Galeforce had) for physically attacking a child, that child being him. It got even better when he heard the words “disgrace” and “demotion” somewhere in there. He waved with one arm to get the kindergarteners’ attention and pointed to the pair.

Ellie snickered and yelled back to the students that both men had voted to have math classes every day forever. (Henry shuddered at the thought. He’d considered holding his own Math Revolution back on the airship, but he figured his uncles probably wouldn’t go for that.) A second later, Galeforce and the General were being pelted with crayons and teddy bears, which startled them and knocked them over into the soapy mud. Henry laughed as they rode past, just managing to catch Charles’ coloring book beaning Galeforce right in the nose and knocking him over again as he was trying to get up. He and Ellie merrily waved at Galeforce as the lieutenant sat up and shook his fist at them, yelling something.

What a great day.

The complex wasn’t _that_ big, and so they were able to loop around and make the Revolution could reach as many soldiers as possible, both by word and by being hit with various objects. Either worked, really.

But soon enough, the kindergarteners were running out of steam and many of them were out of throwables.

And thus, the short-lived Math Revolution came to an end.

The teacher, wheezing and gasping for breath, jogged up to where they had all stopped, though Henry and Ellie stayed a few meters away from the rest of them.

“You…are all...in so much…trouble…” she puffed, leaning forward with her hands on her knees.

The tired students just turned to Henry and Ellie and saluted as one. The two Toppats saluted back.

“Stay strong!” Ellie cried. “We will all defeat math one day!”

 _“YEAH!”_ a dozen voices shouted back.

Kicking the engine back into gear, Henry and Ellie left the students to keep fighting the good fight, and within a minute the entrance of the complex was in sight. Henry could see a bunch of adult Toppats running for the entrance, with most of them already outside. A bullet or two grazed the bubble as they zoomed out of the entrance and rejoined their family.

As Henry brought the scooter to a stop at the back of the group, Uncle Reginald, Uncle Right, and Miss Carol ran up to them and ushered them into one of the many return pods scattered around in the bushes. The other Toppats all streamed into more return pods as they made it to them. Turning off the bubble shield and watching through the window, Henry was relieved that every Toppat he saw, injured or not, made it into one of the pods.

One by one, the return pods took off, heading in several different directions depending on which division had been keyed in as the return point. Henry and Ellie high fived as Uncle Reginald keyed in the airship’s return command and their pod began its journey back to said airship.

Mission complete.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rank: Double Dealers
> 
> Next up is the epilogue!


	9. STOP Codon

All in all, Henry decided as he stepped off the pod and into the airship, the mission had gone pretty well.

Uncle Reginald had told them on the way back that with their distraction, the bank team had not only successfully raided the Central Bank, but a couple of smaller banks as well, which would go straight into the divisions’ vaults (with the usual small cut taken by those involved).

“My apologies,” Miss Carol said when they all reached the cockpit, Henry still wheeling his scooter along. “I know that Ellie and I should go back to the tundra base division, but there wasn’t time to for us to split up and get into separate pods.”

“Quite all right.” Uncle Reginald straightened up, looking very fancy and regal indeed. “That was a most excellent plan, Carol. I definitely made the right decision promoting you to an executive position.”

Uncle Right, looking a bit scuffed up but not too bad, all things considered, nodded in tipped his hat in agreement.

Miss Carol smiled. “Thank you, Chief, Right Hand Man.” She glanced at Ellie.

“Oh, you and Ellie must rest up here for a while, and then you can return to the tundra base division.” Uncle Reginald paused. “A job well done to you too, Ellie. And you, Henry. We never could have pulled off such a good distraction without you two.”

Henry beamed up at his uncle for a moment as Ellie thanked him, but it quickly faded as he realized what was going to happen…and that same thing bothered Ellie too, he thought, noticing her similar downcast expression.

Uncle Right blinked. “What’s wrong? You did good.”

Ellie crossed her arms and slowly scuffed a shoe against the floor in an uncharacteristically shy display. “Well, it’s just…Henry and I are pretty good friends now…and now I have to leave…and we’ll probably never see each other again…”

“Well,” Uncle Reginald said, sounding a bit surprised. “Well.” His eyes flicked over to Miss Carol, then back at Ellie. “I think it’s great that you and Henry are such good friends now! It’s good for children to have friends their own age.” He considered. “You know, Ellie, Henry is the only child recruit on the airship, and we have room for more. If you—and Carol—want to transfer to the airship division, then I wouldn’t be averse to it.”

“Yes!” Ellie grinned madly and Henry couldn’t help but join in. He got to live with his best friend! What could be better than that?

Miss Carol nodded. “That would be fine. The tundra base division can get a little too cold, anyway.”

“Excellent! We’ll just have to get some paperwork together, and you and Ellie can go back tonight or tomorrow and collect your things so you can move in properly.”

Henry and Ellie giggled in excitement as he brought out Cupcake from her place in his jacket pocket and placed her on the handlebars of his scooter right next to the tied-down shield bubble device, stroking her fuzzy black body with a finger. He had a scooter ride to deliver, and deliver it he would. He could talk to his uncles about throwing a party for Cupcake later.

Ellie pulled off her sunglasses and earmuffs and looked at them in appreciation. “You know what?” she said, grinning, “These are pretty sweet trophies of our first mission, don’t ya think? We should keep these. May come in handy again someday.” Smiling at Henry’s nod of agreement, she redonned her trophies, stepped up into the scooter behind him, and a few seconds later they were speeding out the door.

Henry could only just hear Uncle Reginald’s fading voice as they rode away.

“Dear lord, there’s two of them.” A pause. “Wait, was that a spider?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there we have it! Henry and Ellie's first successful mission under their belts, complete with a new spider companion! What stunts will those two little terrors manage to pull together, I wonder?


End file.
